• Hussein Julood has started legal action against oil giant BP after his 21-year-old son Ali died of leukaemia, a death suspected to be linked to flaring.
• Flaring is a western colonialist technique that destroys a country’s future prospects for modernization.
During the start of the Iraq war 20 years ago, US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz said in a hopeful, sceptical statement, “We’re dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” He said this after implying that the potential oil revenues of the country could be $50–100 billion in the next two or three years. 20 years later, we see that it is much the contrary. Iraqi oil is mostly dominated by foreign firms and largely privatised. The majority of the profit made from harvesting oil goes into the accounts of western oil company shareholders, with a much smaller royalty going to the Iraqi state. The proportion of money that does reach the Iraqi state through royalties is significantly off what it should be due to the syphoning off of money to corruption. In 2021, former Iraqi president Barham Salih said that since 2003, an estimated $150 billion of stolen money has been smuggled out of Iraq. On top of this, since 2019, hundreds of people have died after protesting against government corruption, unemployment, and a lack of basic services, including electricity and clean water, as the country has failed to achieve stability following decades of sanctions and war.
Was Iraq always in this state?
The Iraqi oil industry today is largely privatised and filled with foreign firms. This was not always the case; however, before the 2003 US invasion, Iraqi oil was fully nationalised; however, because of UN-imposed sanctions as a result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, it was unable to sell its oil. By 2003, the oil sector was crippled by a lack of funding to repair the industry. The Iraqi people suffered immensely from high levels of malnutrition, a lack of medical supplies, and diseases from the lack of clean water. Even today, after 20 years since the Iraq War, the Iraqi economy relies on oil for more than 90% of its revenue. The danger of nationwide economic consequences as a result of a decrease in oil prices or being outcompeted by neighbours is high, and although the Iraqi government has tried to push for diversification of its economy, it is still in a perilous state.
Before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and before the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, Iraq’s oil sector was booming. For a brief period in the 1970s, Iraq produced as many as 3.5 million barrels of oil per day and used that revenue to dramatically raise living standards. It was the eight-year war with Iran that changed that, the invasion of Kuwait, and the inhumane international sanctions that followed.
Flaring oil, flaring life away
Hussein Julood started legal action against BP after his 21-year-old son Ali died of leukaemia in Basra, Iraq. Hussein alleges flaring caused his son’s leukemia. Flaring is the process of burning off the gas that lies on top of the oil in an oil field to reach the oil.
Flaring can cause carcinogenic pollutants to escape into the nearby atmosphere, affecting people’s respiratory systems. It is also a cruel way corporations use in order to gain access to oil deposits, as it means billions of dollars of gas that could have been used to propel the local economy are lost forever. Flaring is a strategy many western corporations use in poor countries, but by doing so, they disable the nation’s potential for developing its economy and infrastructure through the use of valuable gas.
A BBC World Service investigation in 2022 found that Ali’s village had high levels of cancer-causing pollutants that were known to come from flaring. The claim letter sent to BBC News said that Ali’s leukaemia and subsequent death were caused by ‘toxic emissions from the Rumaila oil field’ and BP is partly responsible as a lead contractor. Ali was 15 when he was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and underwent 2 years of treatment, including multiple courses of chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, and radiotherapy. His father Hussein is seeking compensation from BP for his son’s medical treatment, loss of earning, funeral costs as well as ‘moral loss’ of his son.
This is the first case that BP has had to deal with regarding flaring within Iraq. However, Hussein has said that since Ali’s death, there have been four or five deaths locally from cancer, including a young boy last month. The reality is that a lot of the victims families are unable or unaware of how to bring a case forward to an oil giant like BP. A case can take money, time, and expertise.
